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Topic: Having some problems with Buckeye Bee (Read 4762 times)

I finally got them today and Billy and I put them in the hive with no problems. I ordered them in March at the bee school to be delivered on April 20th.However, the bees are not what I have seen in pics nor at the Southwestern Ohio Bee open house at Parky's Park. The bees were oddly different sizes, I mean some were very tiny and some were absolutely HUGE. Also, there are not that many bees, one frame pretty busy, two very little and two nothing. There were several old (empty) queen cells on the busy frame. I had a hard time finding the queen and honestly I don't think I did, I found a bee laying eggs but it was not any bigger than the rest. It certainly looked nothing like the queen at Parky's Park last month. That queen was HUGE and laying eggs like mad. I am inclined to think its a worker bee laying eggs. Also why would I have queen cells? The Nuc was shipped yesterday! Any ideas?I have seen here and elswhere that other people are having problems with Buckeye Bee. I am very patient in situations like this, I know what its like to overextend yourself. But this guy never called me back and sent me one reply e-mail May 1st saying he would send them that week! Now I really think he sent me the bottom of the barrel. Honestly though getting the bees really perked my week up, I had a bad bad week and it was so exciting to get my stuff together and move the bees into the Hive, I am addicted. I even got stung on the ankle, Billy is telling everyone that makes me a real beekeeper.Cam

BAHAHAHAHAHa..... I know what you mean. I added supers on this very night. Got stung numerous times, but it took me this long to get the supers ready. I hate working bees at night, but I had no choice. Work demands ya know.

I would certainly keep a close eye on them if you think you have a drone layer, or laying worker. With only one colony, you don't have alot of options, and time is critical.

>The bees were oddly different sizes, I mean some were very tiny and some were absolutely HUGE.

As I understand Buckeye is selling small cell bees. You will notice much more variety of sizes when doing small cell bees. The bees still build different sizes in the corners and odd places so some look very large compared to some of the small ones.

>There were several old (empty) queen cells on the busy frame.

Not that big of a deal.

>I had a hard time finding the queen and honestly I don't think I did, I found a bee laying eggs but it was not any bigger than the rest. It certainly looked nothing like the queen at Parky's Park last month.

Small cell queens are sometimes just as big and sometimes quite small. Even typcial queens vary much in size. Many have the theory that only large queens are good queens. I have not found that to be true. But queens look distinctly different. They aren't the same proprotions as a worker.

>I am inclined to think its a worker bee laying eggs. Also why would I have queen cells?

Old queen cells? Every have has some. New queen cells? A nuc that has just been shipped is very likely to blame the stress of shipping on the queen and build supercedure cells.

>I have seen here and elswhere that other people are having problems with Buckeye Bee.

I haven't. What problems? Every producer I know of was late on shipments this year. Some are months late. Mine were two weeks late. That's not too unsual. Sometimes the bees or the weather don't cooperate.

Different sizes, different castes. And Michael is right, no big deal for the queen cells. Most hives will build queen cells from time to time even if they are not going to use them. I was over at a friends house today and did a hive opening with them, we found a queen cell opened it up and found it empty. Don't be too worried that things are going wrong untill you find true evidence that they are. Remember that they can and have gotten along without our help for a long time now. One of the big keys to successful hive management is "scientific neglect"! :lol:

Logged

By the rude bridge that arched the floodTheir flag to Aprils breeze unfurledHere once the embattled farmers stoodAnd fired the shot heard round the world-Emerson

I'm one that is having a big problem with Buckeye Bees, I'm not going public with all my issues until he settles up with me. But I will set a few things straight since there is some clarification needed.

Buckeye Bees is a re-seller of packages, not purely a breeder. He gets his packages from Georgia.

Other than that I will only say this... If you got bees from them, the packages or nucs may not be what you ordered, period.

Has anyone received nucs from them and measured the cell sizing of the drawn frames provided in the nuc?

I ordered from Buckeye last year (two nucs) and this year (five packages of small cell bees).

I did measure some of the comb from last year's nucs, and it was around 5.0, though I didn't even know about small cell last year. This year's packages of small cell bees are small bees--the size difference is obvious. Out of the five, one queen either died or had problems, and the hive went laying worker. I combined them with another hive.

By the way, my packages were due to arrive in April--when they didn't come, I called and they were very good about working with me. Either the packages were lost or there was a mix up on mailing them, but the next Friday, I had all five packages. So I've had good experiences with Buckeye.

:roll: Great that Buckeye Bees was able to answer some of your calls, because they didn't answer any of mine AFTER the bees were late. Answered one e-mail saying the bees would be there the week of May 1st, got them May 27th WITH NO QUEEN. I had the president of our local bee association come by today and he confirmed no queen.

I just sent them YET another e-mail and CALLED them one more time. I do not expect an answer, especially since according to their website they are not responsible no matter what.

I received my NUC Friday, it was shipped Thursday, five days ago. It has no eggs and the larva is several days old. Kevin says that means the Queen was missing or died or something from the start, since the eggs turn to larva after three days. I might remind you it arrived with supercedure cells, about 5 of them.

I left messages with several reccomended companies trying to find a queen to be shipped tommorrow.

Cam, try www.draperbee.com They sent me a queen last week. I know she said they were down to their last for a while, but they may still have one or two. I tried Weaver first and she told me they were sold out until June 21st.

:D Thanks for all your advice, got a queen from Draper today, a Smart Queen (?).

Kevin the president of SWOBA came by to put her in, he suggests we ask for a FULL refund from Buckeye Bee. There were approx. 2,000 bees in my Nuc and at least half were drones and no queen. Also only one mostly drawn out frame, two very weak ones and two empty.

Ken from Buckeye Bees has still not answered my e-mails or my phone calls. Kevin also asked me to write a letter to the association to present at the next meeting in a few weeks. I guess he has heard this all before, he is reluctant to let Buckeye back at the Bee School on the spring. :(

I ordered a package from Buckeye late this spring. The package arrived, but the bees did not accept the queen. I was unable to reach Buckeye to try to get a replacement. I tried phone and email, but finally heard from him a few weeks later. Not exactly good service. I will stick with Drapers or Rossman from now on, as I think the package I received from Buckeye is not going to make it and will need to be replaced. At this point I will wait until next spring.

Nobody has mentioned whether or not they have received nucs of "Small Cell" bees, or whether the foundation was plastic or wax, and if they had drawn comb... was it measured to see if it was drawn close to 4.9.

Just a few things that are nagging at me since Ken at Buckeye was so proud to announce and advertise "Small Cell" packages and nucs.

Ken from Buckeye Bees has still not answered my e-mails or my phone calls.

It's just so strange! When my bees didn't arrive, not only did he return my call, but he called several times to follow up. And that was in April, when I'm sure he must have been very busy in the beeyard. I have found he's not very good about email.

Maybe something's wrong--a family emergency or something.

As for the nucs, I got small cell packages, not nucs. But the nucs I got last year (not small cell) had a mix of frame types. I measured the wax this year, and found most of it about 5.0.